Festival given green light

LUMINOUS: Ben Clegg and Enfys Bellamy's 'Rainbow in the Dark' installation in at Light Nelson in Queen's Gardens last year.

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Light Nelson is set to brighten Nelson this winter.

The festival attracted 16,000 spectators over three days when it was held for the first time last year.

That success has meant it has secured a $37,000 grant from the Nelson City Council Events Marketing and Development Fund for a repeat in July.

The event is billed as a collaboration of art, science and technology to develop works that respond to darkness through illuminated installations, that attempts to offer the viewer a moment of magic, illusion, beauty, interaction and fun.

The event is based in Queen's Gardens spilling into Albion Square and the Chinese garden, and will involve the NMIT Arts and Media building and campus and some other sites around the city.

Events committee chairman Bill Findlater said: “It not only showcases the arts which we're already well known for in this region, it's a collaboration of art, science and technology that shows the region as being innovative and embracing of new technology,” he said. “The funding will help to get the word out about Light Nelson to the rest of the country - it's on at the same time as the Winter Music Festival and the Art Expo this year so it's a great reason to invite the rest of New Zealand to visit us.”

Light Nelson Trust chairman Brian Riley said the support from the events management committee strengthened the partnership between Light Nelson and the Nelson City Council and was good news for the event.

“We see this as endorsement of the tremendous community support we had last year and the potential Light Nelson has to be an ongoing event in the Nelson art calendar and to really put the city on the map as a mid-winter destination,” he said.

Mr Riley said people could expect Light Nelson to be even better and brighter than last year's event.

“We have had submissions from artists from right around New Zealand who want to take part this year and we are into the final stages of narrowing these down to over 30 final projects that will be Light Nelson 2014. We have some very exciting projects here that make use of laser technology, video installation and public interaction around a whole range of hugely creative concepts.”